With face painting, a climbing wall, a photo booth and carnival-style foods, the festival provided a way for city and library officials to thank supporters of the San Rafael Public Library.

“San Rafael was very progressive in establishing library services so early,” said Sarah Houghton, director of the city’s library. “Still today, the community supports the library — they use the library. We’re thankful for that. We want to say thank you to all of our neighbors and have a party.”

San Rafael Councilwoman Kate Colin thanked attendees for their support.

She said when her family first moved to the city nearly 20 years ago, one of the first spaces they became acquainted with was the downtown library.

“We came here one or two times a week,” she said. “It was an outing we did both for story time and to get to know the librarians. To this day, my daughter is still a reader.”

Colin stressed that the city library system is a focal point for the community because it is a space for all.

“It doesn’t matter what your background is,” she said. “It doesn’t matter where you were born, what your economic level is, or your education. Everyone is welcome at the library. It’s the ultimate democratic institution in our community. To me, it’s important to highlight it and celebrate it.”

Bahareh Adami Ardestani, 32, expressed appreciation for the library system as she watched her 2-year-old daughter’s cheeks painted with butterfly wings.

Adami Ardestani said she moved to San Rafael three years ago, after migrating to the United States as an Iranian refugee. She said she was raised in a world where she was restricted from obtaining an education.

Since her family moved to Marin, Adami Ardestani said they have become regular visitors of San Rafael’s library branches.

“I’ve been into the events they’ve organized for three years,” she said. “I feel so empowered to know that people here dedicated their lives for 130 years for coming together.”

Library services were brought to the city by the Women’s Christian Temperance Union, a women’s organization dedicated to social reform. The group hosted a flower festival and musical event to fund the project, according to the San Rafael Public Library.

Within a few months, the group was able to raise enough money through fundraising and subscriptions to rent a Fourth Street building to house the library services.

The library was presented to the town library trustees in 1890. The library contained furniture, more than 1,000 books and $33.50 in the treasury.

With funding from Andrew Carnegie, a businessman and steel tycoon who funded numerous libraries nationwide, the existing downtown library was built and dedicated in 1909. It was expanded in 1960 and again in 1976.

The library now houses not only books and periodicals, but virtual reality gear, DVDs and digital media. It is once again in need of another expansion, but with no room to grow, Houghton said.

“This site is not big enough to build the right size library on,” she said. “We’re going to have to find a new site.”

Library officials at Monday’s City Council meeting will ask council members for direction on how to proceed with finding more space.

Houghton said officials are looking at a potential branch in Terra Linda, as well as an expansion of the Pickleweed Library.

That the library has persisted and continued to grow and progress over numerous decades is exceptional, she said.

“If you think about what the town of San Rafael would have been like 130 years ago, and what it’s like today, that’s a remarkable achievement that we’ve had library services for 130 years on the west coast — this part of the country was not well settled back then,” she said.